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So far I've chickened out on doing the actual pound cast. Just very worried about getting this massive chunk of lead stuck or somehow damaging the bore. From other posts, I can't remember where, I sort of know what a Winchester M70 458 throat looks like so I decided to do an expirment using my set of pin gauges. I made a very shortened Hornady case gauge by drilling and tapping a .458 case and then shortened it so that the long pins will measure the chamber down to 2.5 inches, the length of a 458 case (photo 1). I did measurements in 1/1000 increments (incr. of pins) and recorded the length from case head to end of pin. I started at .451 (.450 slides freely through bore) and measured up to .488, then plotted the results (photo 3). I simplified the plot as photo 2.
It seems to me that these results should be almost equivalent to measurements from an actual bore-cast. It also seems to me that there is no good way to fit a 350 gr bullet to this throat. The driving bands on most .458 boolits (ranch-dog, noe, lyman) is .460 which occurs at 3.0 inch from case base, i.e. 0.5 inch into throat. The short 350 gr NOE (460 350 RF2) would have to jump almost 1/2 inch before contact.
Does anyone think this data is useful to bullet selection? If I go for an Accurate custom (e.g. 46-360J) what sizes should I specify? Would I have learned anything more / different from an actual pound-cast?
Thanks,
Don

OK I did my 1st pound cast today, I did this on my new Savage 111 Trophy Hunter 338 Win Mag.

Question for those who Know what they are doing:

- are most throats tapered? I measured the cast, the largest diameter was .348 and it tapered down to .338 ( I measured this with a pair of Brown & Sharpe calipers) I'm going to take the cat to work and measure it with both Micrometers & the comparator.
- I'm guessing the "rough" ring of lead that formed at the end of the casing and before the throat shows the total depth of the chamber? This ring measured .065" in length.

Thanks

I'm looking for Lyman Truline Jr / 310 dies. PM me if you have any.

Scott

You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them.

Dumb question. Can you do a pound cast in a semi-auto rifle? I have a Remington 740 Woodsmaster in .30-06. Planning on beginning my hand at casting for that rifle before I dive into my new 7mm Rem Mag.

I like 1911's and Wheel Guns , Wood Stocks and Blue Metal ,Dislike Black on Black and Magazines on Rifles whats this country coming to.Amateur Radio Station -KB5SMG- since 1994 Call sign change as of 8-15-17 WB5MG *** My Station now consist of a new * Icom 7300 * along with a new * Ameritron AL-80B Amp * and various other goodies. Im in the process of putting an * Alinco DX70T * HF radio in my work truck I can Be emailed at rockinpmanager@gmail.com

Just want to add another reason to do a pound cast over cerrosafe casting; if you have an old military rifle that has a pitted chamber I suspect the cerrosafe could lock in those pits and you'll wind up melting it to get it out!